'Too high a cost': Singaporeans say parenthood isn't worth it despite years of cash incentives

The figure, released during a Feb. 26 parliamentary debate, means every 100 Singaporeans today would produce just 44 children and 19 grandchildren at current rates, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong warned, according to CNA.

The decline has been swift. A decade ago the total fertility rate stood at 1.24. Now, with only about 27,500 resident births recorded in 2025, the lowest in the country's history, and one in five citizens already aged 65 or older, Gan called the situation an "existential challenge" that would become practically impossible to reverse as the pool of women of childbearing age shrinks.

But for many young Singaporeans, the problem is not a lack of government support. It is that no amount of support feels adequate against the real costs of raising a child in one of the world's most competitive societies.

Market researcher Joey Lau, 34, told This Week in Asia that even if she were a millionaire with unlimited free time, she would still not want children. The risks young people face today, from social media-driven mental health pressures to climate change, are simply too high, she said.

"That would be too high a cost for this kid to pay just so I can feel like I am doing something with my life."

Her stance is far from unusual. Singaporeans in their 30s and 40s interviewed by the publication cited the cost of living, satisfaction with child-free lifestyles and caregiving duties for other family members as their primary reasons for declining parenthood.

Experts say the barriers run deeper than household budgets.

Mathew Mathews, head of the Social Lab at the Institute of Policy Studies, told This Week in Asia that Singaporeans think long-term and want an environment where career penalties for having children are minimized and home support for child-rearing is adequate.

Jean Yeung, director of social sciences at A*STAR's Institute for Human Development and Potential, pointed to a culture of intensive parenting, where enrichment classes, academic pressure and heavy time investment have become the norm. Parents feel that raising a child "properly" demands enormous emotional and financial investment far beyond what policy can compensate for, she told the publication.

Workplace dynamics compound the problem. Many couples fear falling behind professionally, face bias from supervisors or are quietly penalized for taking extended parental leave. Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Indranee Rajah acknowledged on Feb. 26 that policy alone cannot change the trajectory.

She called for a "Marriage and Parenthood Reset" across three fronts: shifting how society views family formation, transforming workplaces to align careers with family life, and mobilizing community support, according to The Straits Times. A new inter-agency work group, which she will chair, has been formed to develop concrete plans.

The government is also turning to immigration. Gan told Parliament that Singapore would grant between 25,000 and 30,000 new citizenships annually over the next five years and raise the annual permanent residency intake to around 40,000, up from about 35,000 in 2025, The Diplomat reported. But he stressed that supporting Singaporean families remains the top priority.

Some analysts point to South Korea as a cautious source of hope. After hitting a record-low fertility rate of 0.72 in 2023, South Korea saw modest rebounds to 0.75 in 2024 and 0.80 in 2025, driven by a rise in marriages, echo-boomers reaching peak reproductive age and expanded fertility treatment subsidies, according to Xinhua. In Seoul, one in five births in 2024 resulted from government-supported fertility procedures.

But whether policy tweaks or cultural shifts can meaningfully move the needle remains an open question. Singapore's ethnic Chinese population, which makes up about three-quarters of residents, recorded a total fertility rate of just 0.71, less than half that of the Malay community at 1.53. The gap underscores that the forces suppressing fertility are not uniform, and neither are the solutions.

For Lau, the calculus is already settled. "Nowadays there are many ways to make a full life," she told This Week in Asia, "in many less risky, less expensive ways."